Not every coffee shop owner grows up dreaming of beans and fresh roast.

Some of them come to the java world from completely different fields. For several decades, Josh Heydemann was a freelance cameraman and film producer, working on commercials, local TV news, and whatever job came up.

But around 15 years ago, as his career advancement got harder and harder, he started thinking of what other line of work he would enjoy.

And as fate would have it, a friend offered him a chance to get involved with a coffee distributorship, and like the day peanut butter met jelly, a new love story was born.

After a decade of selling coffee online through a warehouse location in Bay Shore, and then through farmer’s markets in Roslyn (at Christopher Morley Park) and Rockville Centre, Heydemann decided he was ready to enter the physical retail space, and found a location he really liked.

Opened last June, New York Gourmet Coffee, located at 99 Jericho Turnpike in Mineola, is a spot that offers a more personalized experience than the Starbucks a block away.

“I like to say I’m a legal drug pusher,” the cheerful Heydemann said. “Coffee moves all of us, it keeps us going. But coffee is also messy, just like life is.”

As Heydemann sees it, every cup of Joe you have at Starbucks is going to be the same, whether you’re in Des Moines, San Francisco or Hempstead.

And that’s fine for some people.

But he wants to give customers a different vibe, as he sells a whopping 163 flavors of their favorite “legal drug,” along with pastries, lemonade and other treats.

“If you’re happy at Starbucks, that’s great, enjoy,” Heydemann said on a recent morning inside his shop. “But our coffee is better. And we have items they won’t touch.”

As an example, Heydemann cites frozen coffee ice cubes. Unlike when you order iced coffee at a Starbucks or a Dunkin’, at NYGC the coffee isn’t diluted by the ice, it’s enhanced since the cubes are flavored.

Heydemann can go into great detail about his passion, discussing the various parts of the world where the second most-commodity (behind oil) is grown the best.

He said he buys his beans from different parts of the world and has them roasted in Brooklyn “before we do our magic with them here.”

He said since opening last summer “the build has been slow.”

“For years at the farmer’s markets my customers would say “we love your coffee, you should get a store!” he recalled. “And so I collected all these email addresses and told everyone when we were opening, and where.

“But did they come?” he asks with a rueful smile. “They did not.”

Still, his online business, at www.newyorkgourmetcoffee.com, is booming, and Heydemann said he retains about 80 percent of customers who order online, with many getting regular shipments.

He said NYGC will deliver anywhere on Long Island, for free, and his internet sales quickly surpassed his wholesale sales within one year of the site’s existence.

Now, after a long slog through zoning boards and other red tape (he’s still a bit peeved that the town wouldn’t let him offer drive-thru service, saying locals complain about Starbucks’ drive-up window causing major traffic problems), he’s open for business and excited to sell his product to customers who may like their drink a little differently.

“I’m changing the world for the better, one cup of coffee at a time,” he said.